non-existence; and while it applies only to categorical judgments of
existence, it does so inadequately. To begin with the latter objection,
Brentano proposed to change the four Aristotelian forms of judgment, A,
E, I, O, into the following existential forms:--
A. "There is not an immortal man."
E. "There is not a live stone."
I. "There is a sick man."
O. "There is an unlearned man."
This reconstruction, which merges subject and predicate in one
expression, in order to combine it with the verb of existence, is
repeated in similar proposals of recent English logicians. Venn, in his
_Symbolic Logic_, proposes the four forms, xy = 0, xy = 0, xy> 0, xy> 0
(where y means "not-y"), but only as alternative to the ordinary forms.
Bradley says that "'S-P is real' attributes S-P, directly or indirectly,
to the ultimate reality," and agrees with Brentano that "'is' never
stands for anything but 'exists'"; while Bosanquet, who follows Bradley,
goes so far as to define a categorical judgment as "that which affirms
the existence of its subject, or, in other words, asserts a fact." Now
it is true that our primary judgments do contain a belief in existence;
but they do not all contain it in the same way, but are beliefs
sometimes that something is determined as existing, and sometimes that
something existing is particularly determined. Brentano's forms do not
express such a judgment of existence, as "All existing men are mortal":
nor does Bradley's form, "Reality includes S-P." Metaphysically, all
realities are parts of one ultimate reality; but logically, even
philosophers think more often only of finite realities, existing men,
dogs, horses, &c.; and children know that their parents exist long
before they apprehend ultimate reality. The normal form, then, of a
judgment of existence is either "S is a real P," or "A real S is P."
Hence the reconstruction of all categorical judgments by merging subject
and predicate, either on Brentano's or on Bradley's plan, is a
misrepresentation even of normal categorical judgments of existence.
Secondly, it is much more a misrepresentation of categorical judgments
of non-existence. No existential form suits a judgment such as "A
centaur is a fiction," when we do not believe that there is a centaur,
or that reality includes a centaur. As Mill pointed out, it cannot be
implied that a centaur exists, since the very thing asserted is that the
thing has no real existence. In a correspondence with Mill, Brentano
rejoined that the centaur exists in imagination; Bradley says, "inside
our heads." According to one, then, the judgment becomes "There is an
imaginary centaur"; according to the other "Reality includes an
imaginary centaur." The rejoinder, however, though partly true, is not
to the point. The idea of the centaur does exist in our imagination, and
inside our heads, and the name of it in our mouths. But the point is
that the centaur conceived and named does not exist beyond the idea of
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